Month: June 2012

… the advancement of technology, and how that impacts on society as a whole, was spot on, an extrapolation to a not-too-distant future rooting exactly where we are today. And the writing itself is almost entirely wonderful – Corbett has a beautiful style and I would definitely read more from her.

‘Despite the dead body found on the first page, and one of the narrators being a hard-bitten PI, ‘When we have wings’ is not your classic crime novel. It could have many labels: speculative fiction, urban fantasy, futuristic thriller, but I suggest you put the labels aside, and just go along for the ride.’ Sisters in Crime

‘…the writing itself is almost entirely wonderful – Corbett has a beautiful style and I would definitely read more from her.

In all, I would recommend When We Have Wings to lovers of science fiction, to literary fiction fans, and to readers looking to stretch their boundaries. It’s not a short book, but it’s worth the effort.’ ASIF – Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus

Despite the dead body found on the first page, and one of the narrators being a hard-bitten PI, ‘When we have wings’ is not your classic crime novel. It could have many labels: speculative fiction, urban fantasy, futuristic thriller, but I suggest you put the labels aside, and just go along for the ride.

… the pace is fast, the story exciting, and I just found it really interesting. The descriptions of flight are beautifully lyrical, and I learned a lot about the physics and psychology of flying. I liked that every chapter raised another meaty issue to think about, from climate change, superweeds eating farmland, gene manipulation creating a different species, to working parents and child care, drug abuse, ‘othering’ of those who are different, wealth disparity, abuse of power and so on. It’s a complex world, and like in all worlds, past, present, or future, things are rarely black and white. One of my criteria for a good book is whether I’m still pondering it days after finishing it, and that is certainly the case here. Highly recommended. – Sue Nankervis

David Roberts at Grist quoting Christopher Mims: ‘He frames things this way: The Earth has a certain amount of biological productivity, based on the energy it receives from the sun. Insofar as we degrade or destroy bits of that natural life-support system, we have to reconstitute its “ecosystem services” some other way, mainly through technology. Unfortunately, the Earth is better than us at creating a system in which humans can thrive; biology, after all, is just extremely advanced technology, in comparison to which our machines are clumsy and wasteful. Replacing ecosystem services with technological services — replacing freshwater with desalinized water, say — will exhaust an increasingly large portion of our inventive capacity, time, and work.

Here’s how Mims puts it:

In a hundred years, the biggest industries will all be devoted to the cybernetic enhancement of the planet itself. Whatever limbs we sever now, whatever critical systems we wreck, are going to have to be replaced. Imagining that they might even be upgraded underestimates the unfathomable parallel processing power of 4 billion years of evolution on this planet, which is essentially a vast computer for determining the optimal solution to the problem of resource allocation. So no, I don’t think we’re going to do better.’

Speculative fiction drawing on Australian settings and cultural themes is all too rare, and so disappointing when it’s done carelessly. So how do you go about writing thoughtful Australian spec fic? What are the big issues, pitfalls and rewards?

Speculative fiction drawing on Australian settings and cultural themes is all too rare, and so disappointing when it’s done carelessly. So how do you go about writing thoughtful Australian spec fic? What are the big issues, pitfalls and rewards?